British man loses right to Hindu cremation

A Hindu man in Britain lost his court battle Friday for the legal right to be cremated in a traditional Hindu open-air funeral pyre. Davender Ghai, 70, a world-renowned charity advocate in Britain, argued the practice is already legal under British law, but he sought clarification in order to hold such cremations in the future. Ghai tested the law in 2006 when he lit the funeral pyre of a man in the northern English county of Northumberland.

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Why Is Condi Rice Joining the Torture Debate?

What prompted Condoleezza Rice to break a self-imposed silence on the Bush Administration’s controversial use of harsh interrogation techniques on terror detainees? Friends and colleagues of the former Secretary of State say it was not something she had planned, but that she was simply responding to questions in public settings

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At Pakistan’s Red Mosque, a Return of Islamic Militancy

Nearly two years after the arrest of Abdul Aziz on multiple charges of inciting violence against the state of Pakistan, the firebrand cleric of Islamabad’s radical Red Mosque has returned to the pulpit with a promise that he will continue with his struggle to establish Shari’a, or Islamic law, throughout the country. Just a day after he was released on bail, Aziz, wearing his trademark spectacles and graying beard, returned to the Red Mosque, the site of a weeklong siege in 2007 between the mosque’s seminary students and the Pakistani military, to deliver a sermon ahead of Friday prayers. Thousands of worshipers flocked to the centrally located mosque, spilling into the surrounding streets and kneeling on makeshift prayer rugs while Aziz’s voice boomed out over loudspeakers

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If Chavez initiates talks, Obama would likely agree, Gibbs says

President Obama doesn’t have a one-on-one meeting scheduled with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but if Chavez were to initiate a conversation, Obama would likely go along with it, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. Obama on Friday travels to Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas, a meeting of leaders from North and South America

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Family of slaying suspect says charges ‘out of character’

The family of a woman who faces charges of killing an 8-year-old playmate of her daughter’s said Sunday the accusations are "completely out of character." The Tracy, California, family offered their prayers to the victim’s family. “We are deeply saddened by the loss of this beautiful girl,” said a man who would not give his name, identifying himself only as a relative of suspect Melissa Huckaby, 28

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Woman’s story inspires ‘Haunting’ flick

The box office fright flick "The Haunting in Connecticut" earned $23 million and a second-place ranking the first weekend of its release, satiating the moviegoer appetite for psychological thrills. But what is entertainment for many was reportedly true life for Carmen Reed, who insists on using her maiden name to protect her children and grandchildren. Reed, her husband and four children rented an old colonial home in Southington, Connecticut, in the mid-1980s in order to be close to a hospital where her 13-year-old son was receiving cancer treatment.

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Apocalyptic ‘Knowing’ hits anxious chord

The numbers were good for "Knowing." The film, about a physics professor who sees clues for disastrous events in a time capsule’s list of digits, overcame some pretty long odds at the box office — going against the Paul Rudd-Jason Segel comedy “I Love You, Man,” the Julia Roberts-Clive Owen romantic thriller “Duplicity” and some fairly scathing reviews — to emerge as the weekend’s No. 1 film

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